Personalization, experience, diversification, quality, health, and intelligent consumption will become the general trends of online consumption in China, Qian Fanglian, head of the e-Commerce and Information Technology department of China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), said on Wednesday.
"E-commerce imports have become an important measure for China's new round of opening up and cooperation," Qian said at a press conference held by the MOFCOM on the sidelines of the China International Import Expo in Shanghai.
Online retail has also become integral to people's daily lives, Qian said. From January to August, the total value of China's cross-border e-commerce imports reached 48.97 billion yuan (7.84 billion US dollars), close to the amount seen in the whole of 2017, according to the MOFCOM.
In the first three quarters of 2018, China's online retail sales reached 6.2 trillion yuan (894.1 billion US dollars), with a year-on-year increase of 27 percent. Clothing, daily necessities and home appliances were the three most popular categories in online retail sales.
CGTN Photo
On China's e-commerce law, which will come into effect starting January 1, 2019, Qian said the MOFCOM would continue to encourage the principles of innovation and inclusiveness, optimize and improve regulatory measures in accordance with the overall concept of personal property supervision, and ensure the overall stability of regulatory arrangements.
The law, which will aim to "protect legal rights and interests of all parties" and "maintain market order," requires all e-commerce operators to fulfill their obligations to protect consumer rights and interests as well as personal information, intellectual property rights (IPR), cyberspace security and the environment.
Zeng Xiulian, a partner of Xiaohongshu (RED, a popular e-commerce and social media platform), told CGTN that the CIIE provides a Chinese solution to improving cross-border e-commerce supply chains.
"When purchasing goods at the CIIE, the quality of the products is guaranteed and it reduces the cumbersome links between merchants and consumers.”